Disclosed herein is a responsive support system including a responsive support mount, a preferred responsive support system may include a responsive support mount (for supporting a media machine) that may be associated with a wall support mount (for supporting a screen device).
Unlike old-school televisions that were housed in “entertainment systems” that felt like furniture, increasingly popular flat panel displays are typically mounted on a structure, such as a wall. Because the flat panel displays (a type of “screen device”) are relatively lightweight and often have “optimum” viewing angles (e.g. directly in front of the display), there are many wall-mounting devices that allow a user to manipulate the location and/or angle of the mounted flat panel display. Exemplary wall-mounting devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,644 to Allen, U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,901 to Brodmann et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,553,820 to Karten et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,842,672 to Sweere et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,418,010 to Sawyer, U.S. Pat. No. 6,905,101 to Dittmer, U.S. Pat. No. 7,178,774 to Kim, U.S. Pat. No. 8,094,438 to Dittmer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,693,172 to Russell et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0082156 to Conner, and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0187019 to Dittmer et al. These exemplary wall-mounting devices are meant to be exemplary, not limiting.
Using the wall-mounting devices with a screen device was problematic because of the multitude of cables running between the screen device and associated media machines (e.g. DVD players). As there had to be enough cable between the screen device and the media machines and the greatest distance that there might be therebetween, the cables were relatively long and hard to hide. A solution that was tried was a shelf that attached to the top of the screen device. The media machine was set on the shelf above the media machine. This configuration had two major problems. First, if the screen device was relatively high, the media machine on top of the screen device tended to be difficult to access. Second, setting a media machine above the screen device on a shelf tended to be dangerous in that they were susceptible to bumps and it was easy to knock the media machine off the shelf. Examples of prior art shelves designed to be associated with the top of a monitor include U.S. Pat. No. 6,138,966 to Smith and U.S. Pat. No. 8,009,414 to Ishida et al.
It should be noted that prior art exists that relates to mounting assemblies that have storage below the television. Examples of these include U.S. Pat. No. 8,910,580 to Cockrell (the “Cockrell reference”) and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0255919 to Jones et al. (the “Jones reference”). The Cockrell reference discloses a wall mount cabinet assembly for mounting a flat screen television to a wall that also provides storage space for additional items below the television. The Jones reference discloses a panel television mounting assembly that includes, in one embodiment, a shelf for supporting a television accessory below the panel television.
Finally, it should be noted that prior art exists that relates to shelves, drawers, and racks that transition between multiple positions. Examples of these include U.S. Pat. No. 6,309,038 to Domenig, U.S. Pat. No. 6,435,634 to Webb et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,770,986 to Simaitis, U.S. Pat. No. 8,011,742 to Whitted, U.S. Pat. No. 8,424,693 to Hoover, and International Publication No. WO88/02593 to Ostman.